Morning Headlines: Dranoff Project Protest Draws 90

Logo for One Ardmore Place, Carl Dranoff’s new mixed-use development. Courtesy Dranoff Properties.

The “Rally for Ardmore” in front of the Lower Merion Township Building brought out about 90 residents and business owners, according to the Main Line Times, who are against developer Carl Dranoff’s plan for the Cricket Avenue parking lot — a plan he’s practically had to sell his soul to see realized. The group chanted, “What do we want? No eight stories. Slow this thing down now.” All right, so it’s not exactly “we shall overcome,” but the point was made.

From the MLT:

Regina Melchiorre Brown, president of ArdWood Civic Association, which organized the rally, said it opposes the project as out of scale and character with Ardmore’s historic downtown and traditional neighborhoods….

“We are not anti-development. We are anti-out-of-scale development,” Melchiorre Brown said. She and others at the rally voiced other objections, including the use of public funds to support private development, traffic and parking impacts that will outlast the immediate challenges of an 18-month period of construction, including the blow temporary loss of the parking lot may deal to existing businesses, some of which may not survive.

Melchiorre Brown said ArdWood has taken part in the various township meetings over a number of years as the focus of revitalization shifted to the Cricket Avenue site. “Nothing we have done in the township-dictated process” of public participation “has gained any response,” she said, leading to this weekend’s demonstration.

Brown suggested to the crowd that they protest there every day. The crowd will be there again for a similar rally on Nov. 8th.

Meanwhile, the project is set to break ground in January.

Protest of Ardmore Cricket Lot development draws 90 [Main Line Times]

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